Nagui Rouphail

Advanced technology vehicles (ATV) including connected vehicles (CV), non-connected automated vehicles (AV), and connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies and applications promise transformative changes in transportation system performance. Agencies need the capability to assess the planning, design, operations, and management implications of the presence of such vehicles with different levels of connectivity and automation on system performance. In addition, agencies need to assess the impacts of these technologies as part of their decision-making processes to plan, design, operate, and manage the transportation system.

The purpose of this research is to assist the NCDOT Traffic Management Unit (TMU) and the Value Management Office (VMO) in assessing issues regarding the construction of Diverse, Modern, and Unconventional Intersections and Interchanges (DMUII). Assessing the constructability of these emerging DMUII is a new area of study that has not yet been previously explored. Therefore, this research will identify factors affecting construction projects prior to construction and develop a schedule and cost payout model (based on prior NCDOT projects) that identifies problems related to expenditure, schedule, and obstruction of traffic during construction.

The NCDOT is launching a bold and forward-looking effort to establish multi-university transportation centers of excellence to provide broad-based, multidisciplinary research into the applications and impacts of cutting edge technologies and emergent, disruptive trends. The projects included in our center proposal were custom-built to address the research areas spelled out in the request for proposals for the desired Mobility and Congestion center. The three themes are as follows: ??????????????? Theme #1: Big Data and Data-Driven Transportation Management and Decision Support ??????????????? Theme #2: Active Transportation Management/Integrated Corridor Management ??????????????? Theme #3: Transit and Mobility as a Service

This proposal describes Phase II of Project K2, titled Assessing and Addressing Deficiencies in the HCM Weaving Segment Analyses. Phase I of this project was limited to the analysis of simple, ramp weaves. It included new data collection at 15 sites in the Southeast and Western US, and a new speed predictive model that avoids much of the complexities in the HCM6 method. The model was found to yield more accurate speed predictions than the current HCM6 methodology. Phase II will extend the work to major weaves. As part of the original Phase I data collection, the research team had already collected volume and geometry data for 14 Type B sites which were not used in that phase. In addition, the team has access to the original NCHRP 03-75 database, which included another 10 Type B weaves. As a result, there will be no new data collection for this weaving configuration in Phase II. . The team proposes to collect a limited set of new data in North Carolina (5-6 sites) for Type C weaving configuration, in order to cover all weaving configurations and enabling the development of new HCM material that is comprehensive across all weaving types.

This project will identify, develop, and implement a suite of simulation models and methods for use in assessing the implications of the presence of connected vehicles (CV), automatous vehicles (AV), and connected automated vehicles (CAV) in the traffic stream and in evaluating the impacts of associated applications that use these technologies. The project will build on current national and international efforts including the on-going research conducted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). As such, the research will start with a comprehensive review and assessment of the literature and existing products on the subject including examining the products of the FHWA effort. Using the review and assessment as a basis, high priority CAV applications to be addressed in this project will be identified based on defined criteria and a framework and guidelines will be developed for the use of analysis, simulation, and modeling of CAV. The project will then develop procedures for calibrating and validating simulation models to ensure the proper use of these models in replicating emerging vehicle technologies and applications. The research team will also identify and develop utilities and extensions of existing models to allow the modeling of selected high priority modeling applications. The project will demonstrate the use of the project development to support agency decisions with regard to high priority CAV applications.

Traffic Analysis Tools-Assessment, Comparison, and Validation Study 2019-2021

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is expected to fundamentally change transportation systems. The Transportation Planning Branch at NCDOT, which is responsible for the state??????????????????s long-range transportation plan, needs state-of-the-art information and predictions on AV technology and its potential impacts on transport to be better prepared for the upcoming changes and maximize the social benefits that this technology will enable. The Transportation Systems group faculty (Drs. Bardaka, List, Rouphail, and Williams) and Dr. Frey (Environmental Engineering) in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at NCSU as well as Dr. Cummings, the Director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University will work together to leverage existing research in the area of AV technology to evaluate impacts and provide policy and future research recommendations to NCDOT. The study will include a comprehensive literature review on AV technology and its impact on transportation demand, capacity, mobility, traffic safety, emissions, energy use, and land use. The results of previous research will be analyzed and case studies for North Carolina will be developed. The study will also provide recommendations to NCDOT regarding changes in policies and regulations, future test plans and test infrastructure, and research priorities in the area of AV technology. As part of this study, the researchers will work closely with the Transportation Planning Branch to provide guidance on how existing models (such as the statewide demand model) could be adapted to account for the presence of AVs.

As stated in its mission statement, the strategic prioritization process declares that ????????????????Projects are evaluated based on their merit through an analysis of the existing and future conditions, the benefits the project is expected to provide, the project??????????????????s multi-modal characteristics and how the project fits in with local priorities???????????????. Considering that nearly 3 billion dollars annually of NC taxpayer dollars are at stake in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Prioritization process of ranking highway projects for funding, travel time savings (TTS) constitute a key input into the projects' benefit cost analyses. Yet, estimates of those savings for various competing projects are derived from models that are completely different in scales, both spatially and temporally, including a low-resolution statewide travel demand model, a highly detailed microsimulation model and a manual calculation based on very limited data. The method of reconciling those estimates across projects has varied from no adjustments in some past Prioritization rounds, to prioritizing based on the relative number of project requests (e.g. corridor vs. intersection improvements) as was done in Prioritization 5.0. This research is intended to study, and propose alternative reconciliation methods for TTS estimates that can improve and make the ranking process more transparent, robust and replicable.

This research is intended to assist NCDOT in improving mobility and safety performance at urban interchange influence areas (IIA's) in North Carolina, to remedy the excessive levels of discretionary lane changes occurring at those locations. The research will predict how driver lane changing behavior is impacted by local traffic, by control and by site conditions. A second objective will be to ascertain whether changes in signing, markings or other traveler information near the IIA can induce fewer discretionary lane changes and thus reduce unnecessary traffic turbulence near interchanges. Currently NCDOT has no means to track lane changing behavior. This research will take advantage of an existing (and continuously expanding) NC State high resolution second by second trip database which uses an in-vehicle OBD-II unit (called i2d) in the Triangle Region. Supplemented with controlled experiments and other data sources the research will produce predictions of lane changing behavior at the vehicle scale, based on present IIA geometrics, the prevailing traffic states and any implemented lane-discipline-inducing treatments. To achieve these objectives, we are proposing to develop a statistical model to predict lane change intensity in urban interchange influence areas. Lane changes will be characterized as mandatory or discretionary. Our i2d data can inform us which type of lane change it is, based on knowledge of the trip origin and destination. Initially, however we will assume that all lane changes are discretionary except when it is known that the vehicle is either entering or exiting the IAA. Thus our predictor variable will be the expected discretionary lane change intensity per vehicle mile in the IIA.

The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) is one of the most widely used references in transportation engineering, both for planning and operational analyses. The 6th edition of the HCM offers a wide spectrum of analyses ranging from freeway segments to facility travel time reliability. With the recent emphasis from Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on the adoption of reliability performance measures for funding prioritization purposes and mitigating congestion, a new era for the usage of macroscopic models is emerging. HCM travel time reliability analysis is based on modeling a set of representative days with varying operational conditions. Weaving segments are often critical components of freeway facilities, as they can act as bottlenecks. Any bias or errors within this procedure can significantly impact facility-wide or reliability analyses, and in the process significantly brings question into the validity of the entire facility methodology. Researchers at NC State University have been advised of this issue when evaluating the implementation of the HCM6 freeway facility method in the FREEVAL software. NCHRP 03-75 developed the most recent weave analysis method found in HCM. It used real-world data and developed analytical models to assess several weave segments configurations by estimating speeds, capacities and Level of Service (LOS). The developed model was adopted in the 2010 HCM and is included in the 6th edition. In recent years, practitioners have found several cases where this method is not able to model or show sensitivity to certain important parameters under certain operating conditions. For example, the non-weaving vehicles?????????????????? speeds are not sensitive to the weave short length (which is the distance between two gore points in the weave segment). Also, the non-weaving speed is not sensitive to all lane changes within the segment. These deficiencies have led to questioning the validity of the HCM??????????????????s weave segments analysis. Furthermore, these deficiencies have gradually led to wide-spreading concerns with facility-wide or travel time reliability analyses that by default incorporate weaving segment analyses.

This project will develop tools for analyzing and optimizing system reliability on freeways. These tools include analytical and simulation frameworks for the optimization and near real-time performance forecast of active traffic management (ATM) systems. The proposed traffic congestion mitigation toolbox will include local and/or system-wide adaptive ramp metering, integrated rampmetering and variable speed limit control, hard shoulder running, speed harmonization, dynamic pricing of express lanes, optimized traffic diversions and efficient incident response and management. ATM deployment is a means to meet specific reliability goals below a desirable agency specified threshold. This two-year project will develop a methodological framework, a novel integrative process of system modeling, and will select and optimize appropriate strategies from the ATM toolbox to meet reliability goals. We will also test the validity of the proposed approach using data from a minimum of three freeway facilities in the Southeast region at both rural and urban locations.

At the conclusion of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) research phase, the SHRP2 Implementation Assistance Program (IAP) was established by the Federal Highway Administration to ????????????????help State departments of transportation (DOTs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and other interested organizations deploy SHRP2 Solutions.??????????????? The ????????????????SHRP2 Solutions??????????????? mentioned in this program mission statement consist of implementable tools in each of the SHRP2 focus areas, namely Reliability, Capacity, Safety, and Renewal. As is clear from the project title, the pilot study detailed in this project authorization document involves reliability data and analysis tools. Prior to and concurrent with the SHRP2 research phase, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has been actively and continually engaged in direct support for complementary research in the domain of mobility and reliability. Key NCDOT-sponsored research projects in this effort include completed projects RP 2006-13 Effectiveness of Traveler Information Tools; HWY 2009-05 Assessing Operational, Pricing, and Intelligent Transportation System Strategies for the I-40 Corridor Using DYNASMART-P; and RP 2011-07 Mobility and Reliability Performance Measurement and the ongoing project RP 2013-08 Smartlink ?????????????????? Baseline for Measurement of Benefits. Engagement in these research efforts has put NCDOT in a strong position to lead the way in implementing. Bolstered by this strong position, the NCDOT submitted a proof of concept pilot study application under round 4 of the IAP in the summer of 2014. NCDOT??????????????????s application was approved for FHWA implementation assistance funding, and the statement of work included in this project authorization document outlines the research tasks defined in the IAP application. The proof of concept pilot study envisioned by the application covers all the tools in the Reliability Data and Analysis Tools bundle, namely the implementable research products from the following SHRP2 research projects: L02 Establishing Monitoring Programs for Mobility and Travel Time Reliability; L05 Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures into the Transportation Planning and Programming Processes; L07 Evaluation of Cost-Effectiveness of Highway Design Features; L08 Incorporation of Travel Time Reliability into the Highway Capacity Manual; and C11 Development of Improved Economic Analysis Tools Based on Recommendations from Project C03 [Interactions between Transportation Capacity, Economic Systems, and Land Use merged with Integrating Economic Considerations Project Development]. The SHRP2 data and analysis tools implementation supported by this IAP proof of concept pilot study is fully consistent with NCDOT initiatives aimed at providing enhanced system performance monitoring and measurement. These monitoring and measurement capabilities are essential to enabling performance-based decision support and the assessment of the impact of strategic transportation investments. The results, findings, and recommendations arising from this pilot study will help refine that application of the SHRP2 reliability data and analysis tools, solidify NCDOT??????????????????s leadership position in this emerging area, and disseminate lessons learned to the national transportation management community.

Alternative intersections and interchanges (AII) such as the Restricted Crossing U-Turn (RCUT), can increase safety and capacity, thereby reducing congestion for both vehicular and non-vehicular traffic. Often, RCUTs provide extended capacity for an existing intersection, typically for intersections which are under consideration for grade separation due to capacity constraints. Limited construction funding can often delay costly bridge projects for years. Consequently, AII designs can be useful in many cases because the intersection strategy provides the opportunity to extend the service life of intersections experiencing problems that will not likely be resolved otherwise in the foreseeable future. While many agencies recognize the operational and safety benefits of RCUT designs, the comparative evaluations undertaken during the selection process often have a very narrow scope. For example, in evaluating the effectiveness of RCUT intersections, studies typically model only vehicular operations. However, the implementation of RCUT intersections may significantly impact other users of other modes, such as pedestrians and bicyclists. In addition, RCUT designs may have broader level impacts on the corridor if operations are improved at one intersection and not at other upstream and downstream intersections. Accordingly, this proposed project will explore system level integration alternatives related to RCUT designs and will provide guidance for their use to optimize operations and to extend the useful life of facilities. In addition, the research team will explore the multimodal impacts of this intersection design to look at ways to improve operations for all users.

Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure

The analysis of operational impacts of work zones is important to estimate travel time, delay, and user cost impact to the traveling public due to construction activities. While work zone analysis on freeway segments and facilities is discussed quite frequently in the literature, the coverage of arterial work zone analysis and associated methodologies are limited. Specifically, ongoing NCDOT research is developing a methodology and software implementation for arterial work zone analysis, which will be used by NCDOT. However, this research only provide arterial work zone saturation headway under pre-timed signal controller assumption while most of signalized arterials maintained by NCDOT use semi-actuated coordination. Under semi-actuated coordinated control, the g/C ratio for the coordinated phases are not fixed but dynamically vary cycle by cycle as demand fluctuates. Therefore, there is a need to study urban arterial work zone capacity in a way that explicitly considers dynamic g/C ratio under various work zone configurations. In addition, work zones on signalized arterials affect not only intersection capacity but also corridor travel speed. Therefore, there is high possibility to have ????????????????coordination broken??????????????? due to progression speed changes. Recent NCDOT research which conducted by Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) shows impressive improvement of arterial speed (travel time) using developed offset optimization. This result promises that there are possible methods to mitigate arterial congestion during work zone present.

NC State University has agreed to partner with the University of Maryland (lead) and five other universities in forming a National Center on Economic Competitiveness. Each partner university has been allocated a base budget to carry out a research, education and technology transfer programs either individually, or in collaboration with other partner universities. Additionally, about 10% of the National UTC funds (not included in the base budget) will be used to fund only collaborative projects. The three key areas covered under this agreement include freight and logistics, highway congestion and high speed rail. The budget, and the faculty and staff involved in this initiative have been selected because of their expertise in those areas. It is expected that the base budget will cover two research projects and one educational project for each of the year of the UTC grant. One research project will be in the freight/ logistics area and the second on highway congestion mitigation.

The National Transportation Center at the University of Maryland (NTC@Maryland) with Arizona State University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Florida, supported by Google, Uber, RubyRide, INRIX, TomTom, HERE, and State Departments of Transportation in Maryland, North Carolina, and Florida, proposes an Integrated, Personalized, REal-time Traveler Information and Incentive (iPretii) technology that encompasses: a) A person-level travel behavior, traffic simulator, and energy estimator called the System Model (SM); and b) A Control Architecture (CA) with personalized signal design based on behavioral research, user intent prediction, signal optimization, and signal delivery modules. We envision that iPretii will enable public and private-sector entities to deliver personalized incentives to guide a subset of travelers to adjust both their driving behavior and choices of route, departure time, and mode. These personalized incentives minimize energy consumption by optimizing driving style, mitigating congestion, and increasing vehicle occupancy. iPretii will be developed within two years to quantify possible energy efficiency gains in the Washington, DC-Baltimore megaregion with a population of 8.3 million, under recurrent and non-recurrent congestion (e.g., accidents, work zones, adverse weather). Multiple field tests are designed to identify and address technology gaps, and to demonstrate iPretii readiness for real-world implementation.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has a long history of developing and supporting sketch-level planning tools for performance based planning. STEAM, HERS, SPASM, and SCRITS are just a few of the many examples of the software tools that FHWA has developed to assist national, state, and local agencies in performing sketch planning level analyses of infrastructure investment decisions. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) gives further impetus to FHWA??????????????????s efforts by placing a strong emphasis on system performance and travel time reliability. Agencies will increasingly need to evaluate and predict the benefits resulting from the implementation of not only capacity improvement options but also operations-based strategies. The objective of this Task Order is to develop a sketch planning method employing the NPMRDS data set with which analysts can: 1. Empirically measure the impact of operational improvements and 2. Impute the benefits of such strategies and actions in other settings.

Developing a Systematic Approach to Improving Bottleneck Analysis in North Carolina. ITRE at NC State University is pleased to partner with UNCC on this NCDOT sponsored research project. As the proposed budget is evenly split between UNCC and NCSU, both universities will share in the execution of all tasks, with UNCC focusing the data collection, analysis and modeling in the Charlotte/ Mecklenburg region and NC State on the Research Triangle Region. The methodologies, and models, however will be identical in both regions. Reference is made to the full proposal delivered to NCDOT for additional details

Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, human activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure

Dr. Earl Downey Brill, Jr. will serve as the representative of North Carolina State University to the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE) consortium. Dr. Brill is expected to spend about 8 hours per month participating in the consortium?s teleconferences, as well as in coordinating with faculty and staff at North Carolina State University.

This collaborative research between ITRE and RTI will be carried out by Dr. Nagui Rouphail and Dr. Alan Karr, Director of the Center of Excellence for Complex Data Analysis (CoDA) at RTI. It is intended to occur in the period between August 16 and December 31, 2016 or the entire Fall Semester of AY16, and will focus on the area of transportation data science. There is a long history of successful research collaboration between Drs. Karr and Rouphail in the area of transportation data analytics, dating back to the mid 1990??????????????????s. At that time Dr. Karr resided at NISS and Dr. Rouphail started at NC State. Funding for those collaborations was derived from such sources as the USDOT IDEA Program, BTS, NSF and the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP-2). Currently, both Rouphail and Karr are collaborating on a FHWA funded research on the development of transportation data visualization tools at the network and connected vehicle (probe) levels. The proposed collaboration builds on previous joint research which had focused on fixed infrastructure generated data. As the timeline schematic below implies, mobility data sources are shifting from aggregated infrastructure sensing, to monitoring individual vehicles (probes) and now individual travelers. This is in line with the anticipated safety and mobility measurements generated from connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV). The proposed collaboration will focus on high resolution (1 Hz) vehicle dynamics data that are locally generated from a continuously monitored fleet of 15-20 ITRE-instrumented vehicles for which mobility and safety data have been archived since April 2014. To date nearly 30 million detailed data records of thousands of trips in the Triangle region have been archived. We will explore those rich data to characterize human driving behavior as it relates to safety, mobility and environmental impacts with consideration of the driving context.

ABSTRACT Data visualization tools will greatly enhance usability and thus the use of datasets archived in the RDE and WxDE. These resources are expected to be widely used by researchers as well as those involved in the development, deployment, and evaluation of connected vehicle technologies and data applications. Given the diversity of users as well as the diversity of the datasets potentially available to them, our approach to the task is to create a flexible, powerful framework consisting of the following: ??????????????? A toolbox of visualization components, such as maps, charts, scatterplots, histograms and even tabular summaries. These components will be available to use in both static and dynamic/animated formats. The individual components will be provided in such a way that a user can assemble multiple dataset views into a dashboard that both summarizes the data and supports drill down options. The multiple dashboard views will be linked, so that selections in one view propagate to the others, and each visualization component will be constructed using open source software, such as D3.js. ??????????????? One or more translation engines that will enable the views to operate on any dataset contained in the RDE and WxDE regardless of its native format (for example, CSV, SQL, etc.). The software tool resulting from this effort should serve multiple purposes including characterizing as well as evaluating the quality of one or more datasets.

Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure

This project is focused on enhanced modeling, continued monitoring, and assessment of a large work zone project in Raleigh, North Carolina. The work zone project covers work to be completed under TIP numbers I-5311/I-5338: I-40 and I-440 Re-Construction Work from Exit 293 to I-40 Exit 301 and I-440 Exit 14. Through this project, the ITRE team will use current performance data extracted from Traffic.Com, Inrix, and overhead video cameras to collect and analyze performance data for key corridors across the network, including the primary work zone corridor and critical diversion routes. These data will be used to calibrate simulation models to the observed conditions, which will enable the team to offer assistance in responding to observed choke points in the network.

In 2003 and 2004, a joint research team from the University of North Carolina School of City and Regional Planning and North Carolina State University Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering conducted a benefit cost study of the North Carolina Department of Transportation?s Incident Management Assistance Patrol (IMAP) program investments. In the roughly ten years since this study, NCDOT's IMAP program coverage has grown from approximately 320 centerline miles in 2004 to approximately 690 centerline miles today. IMAP drivers provide the critically important service of minimizing congestion impacts of incidents while simultaneously maximizing the safety of the motorists and emergency responders. The system growth highlighted above is a testament to the success of IMAP drivers and supervisors of in providing this service. A direct result of this overwhelming success is that demand for further expansion of the IMAP program continues unabated. However, this need to move forward with expanding IMAP service areas corresponds to a trend in NCDOT workforce downsizing. Fiscal and personnel constraints are not unique to North Carolina and have directly impacting how service patrols have been deployed elsewhere. In fact, SafeHighways.org estimates that about 39% of safety service patrols nationwide are run by private contractors. Much has changed since the earlier NCDOT-sponsored IMAP research project. The tool delivered by that project did not consider outsourcing as an option for IMAP expansion. There has also been much research over the last ten years that can be applied to yield much improved estimates both of system costs and also of transportation network benefits from well-designed IMAP deployments. Buoyed by this motivation, the NC State/ITRE project team proposed to conduct a thorough review of the state of the practice and well as applicable research to provide new methodologies implemented in an accompanying computational engine that will enable NCDOT to conduct accurate assessments of IMAP program costs and benefits, including evaluation of public and private delivery of service options, and to conduct selection and prioritization of routes for IMAP system expansion.

ITRE will contribute towards updating the current freeway facility chapter of the HCM. through the identification and resolution of knowledge gaps, most notably in the integration of reliability and ATDM effects, the addition of research findings on work zones, truck effects and managed lanes, the development of initial HCM chapter drafts, the development of appropriate example problems in those chapters and developing and integrating existing and revised computational engines to supplement the current procedure in the areas of ATDM and reliability

ITRE will work with Kittelson to create a Transportation System Simulation Manual in support of the FHWA's Traffic Analysis Tools Program

Fast developing countries such as Korea do not have properly maintained activity data and emissions rate information. Therefore, it is difficult to establish an improved emission inventory (EI) and subsequently estimate emissions from onroad vehicles. The focus of this research is to bridge the gap between transportation activity and multi-pollutant onroad emissions models under Korean conditions, using state-of-the-art methods developed and tested elsewhere. The objectives are to: (1) To identify and establish assumptions and methods for analysis of emissions applicable to Korean condition; (2) To develop and calibrate MOVESLite-K for Korean condition in the light of NC State developed MOVESLite to reduce computational overhead arising from using conventional emissions models e.g. MOVES; (3) To Integrate MOVESLite-K in a mesoscopic traffic model (DTALite) for the city Suwon, Korea; (4) To evaluate different transportation management strategies for the city of Suwon at high spatial and temporal resolution in the integrated-framework.

Dr. Rouphail will serve as a technical expert for the Phase 1 AMS Testbed Selection. He will provide support to Kittelson and Booz Allen Hamiliton for activities awarded under and IDIQ from FHWA.

State and local department of transportation are searching for guidance and direction on how to move forward with the analysis of ?Alternative Intersections/Interchanges?. Recently significant interest has developed in the double crossover diamond interchange (DCD) (aka, divergent diamond interchange (DDI), the displaced left turn (DLT), the median U-turn (MUT), and the restricted conflict U-turn (RCUT) that are rapidly proliferating by converting existing intersections and for new construction. Currently, most analyses are conducted using microsimulation software that are time consuming and costly at early analysis. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) does not have analysis procedures for alternative intersections with the exception of roundabouts.

Virginia Tech's Cost Proposal to FHWA TOPR #34 "Accelerating Roundabout Implementation in the United States"

Many freeway-to-surface street (i.e., service) interchanges in the US have serious operational and safety problems. Simple diamond interchange forms provide many examples of this type of failure across the US. Unconventional design solutions provide a menu of options that agencies can explore to overcome the pitfalls associated with failing diamond interchanges. The most prominent unconventional service interchange design with no loops and no weaving at the moment is the double crossover diamond (DCD) interchange. The DCD has enormous potential to help agencies faced with a failing simple diamond interchange. The DCD is new and there are still few installations. The first three DCD interchanges were apparently installed near Paris, France. The first DCD in the US opened at I-44 and MO-13 in Springfield, Missouri in June 2009. At least five more DCD interchanges are expected to open in the US within the next few years. Unfortunately, the existing research has barely scratched the surface of knowledge of the DCD. The objectives of this project are to: (1) evaluate the operational and safety impacts of converting an existing diamond interchange into a DCD through before and after study, and (2) investigate how accurately the field observed traffic conditions at the DCD sites can be replicated in microscopic simulation in VISSIM. Satisfaction of these objectives, through detailed study of the six DCD interchanges expected to be in place soon in the US, will go a long way to filling the gaps noted above in the existing DCD knowledge base. This will build confidence in highway agencies across the US to be able to use the DCD design in the places where it can do the most good for American motorists.

The proposed project will be designed and conducted to provide the key components necessary to establish the Smartlink benefits measurement system. First, an appropriate set of supporting and direct measures of systems benefits must be selected and defined. Second, detailed data requirements for calculating the selected performance measures must be identified and specified. Third, a pre-ATMS system deployment (before condition) data set must be assembled based on the specified data requirements. This before condition data set will serve at the baseline benchmark of the transportation system performance. Finally, the project will define and establish a methodology for continual updating of the required system data and benefits measurements and periodic reporting of the resulting (and continually updated) cost-benefit analyses.

Provide advice on the development of the impact assessment plan and guidance on the selection of the micro-simulation test-beds for the simulation experiments.

Under this work assignment, key staff from ITRE will e made available for technical consultation with personnel from the L38 pilot sites and other agencies implementing these products. this support will include providing advice on hoe to prepare inputs, how to operate the product, how to interprets the results and limited software changes to the existing products.

Participate with Kittelson Associates Inc on the research and development of a Work Zone Capacity Methods for the Highway Capacity Manual.

Work zone and construction impacts on arterial streets constitute a considerable source of congestion in North Carolina metropolitan areas. Work zones that cause a ?significant? disruption to the traveling public are required to undergo a performance evaluation to assure that impacts can be minimized to the extent possible. This includes decisions on the type of work zone scenario to be considered, as well as an assessment of the feasible times of day during which construction activities are permitted. However, NCDOT does not currently have an evaluation tool that could be used to perform such analyses on urban arterials. With the presently available tools, the analyst is limited to either performing peak period analyses using analytical tools not originally designed to evaluate work zones, or contracting a cost-intensive and high-effort simulation analysis of the proposed activities.

We will use field measurements, analyses of existing data, and novel approaches based on linking traffic simulation models to micro-scale emissions models for onroad vehicles to improve emissions inventories. This research will include a combination of measurement, modeling, and analysis techniques. We will develop and demonstrate new analysis techniques that can be generalized to state, regional, or national emission inventories. We will use field measurements to determine whether emission inventories represent real-world conditions. We will conduct multi-pollutant field studies to elucidate interactions between co-emitted pollutants that must be considered in emission inventories. We will use field data to characterize spatial and temporal variability of emissions from onroad vehicles at scales that support project-level assessments as well as area-wide inventories.

Vehicle fuel use and emissions (FU&E) have substantial national energy and environmental implications, but are confounded by sources of intra/inter-vehicle variability and, therefore, require scientific inquiry in order to develop an improved basis for their characterization and management. The main objectives of this research are to: (1) quantify intra-vehicle variability in FU&E due to inter-driver variability, cold start, ambient conditions, and road grades; (2) develop FU&E models based on multiple levels of vehicle aggregation and multiple temporal scales; and (3) evaluate the interface of these models with transportation models and for use with real-time vehicle detection.

Because the entire L55 team will be involved in the evaluations, it is necessary to have them conducted in a similar manner. Therefore, the first activity is to outline the process for conducting the evaluations and defining a common format for documenting the results. SHRP 2 has provided a summary format (see the Appendix) that will be used to document the results, but a more detailed checklist is needed to conduct the Phase 2 evaluations. The following topics will be covered: o Benefits categories (outcomes) Improving the internal processes of transportation agencies Overall congestion, as measured by vehicle-hours of delay Travel time reliability, as measured by the 80th percentile travel time index Highway safety, as measured by change in crashes by severity level and overall crash rate Agency costs Economic impacts, such as job creation Agency interviews Applications where the product was used Ease of product use What resulted from product use vs. what would have been done otherwise o Technical evaluation Data availability Linking outcomes to product use ??A???a?sA???A? Impact on decision-making ??A???a?sA???A? Sketch modeling

Pedestrian detection, counting and tracking technologies are considered key components of ITS. Current pedestrian detectors do not do an adequate job of detecting and tracking pedestrians to support automated counting for traffic surveys. A pedestrian detection system using artificial intelligence algorithms for pulling out and tracking pedestrians can significantly increase the accuracy of automated pedestrian counting systems, and eventually lead to more pedestrian responsive traffic control systems. This public service project will evaluate in the office the performance of the pedestrian bicycle count detection developed by Migma. All video detections will be streamed to ITRE for evaluation.

The NCDOT Central Office System Timing (COST) Section is charged with developing, evaluating, and maintaining closed-loop signal system timing plans across the state. Currently, signal plan evaluation is a manpower intensive task that involves field observation and travel time runs. This approach to plan evaluation is costly and inefficient. Even when extensive field study is undertaken, the data represent a relatively small observational sample of traffic control and traffic flow conditions. Therefore there is clear motivation for developing performance evaluation methods that are cost effective and comprehensive. One promising avenue of investigation is exploitation of the signal system detector and signal timing data for generation of performance metrics. Although these signal systems include extensive vehicle detection for use in dynamic system control logic, the data have been used exclusively as inputs to dynamic control logic. A new thread of research activity has begun to explore used of signal control detection and control outputs for estimating system performance. The SMART-SIGNAL system prototype developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota for the Minnesota Department of Transportation is one such effort. As a first step in the proposed project, the project team will thoroughly investigate the research, practice, and technical report archives in the U.S. and internationally to develop a detailed picture of the current state of practice and research. Beginning with the foundation of relevant results and methodologies from previous research and development activities, the project team will devise a data collection plan to support the rigorous development of closed-loop system performance models. The accuracy and precision of these models will be assessed relative to field observed performance measurements. Recommendations will be developed for the implementation of the best performing models. When implemented, the products of the proposed research will significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of COST section timing plan evaluation activities. Furthermore, the project team will provide a comparative evaluation of system travel time estimates from the proposed models with respect to INRIX arterial surveillance data. Along these lines, it is anticipated that the performance models developed will also support ongoing NCDOT efforts to deploy a comprehensive statewide mobility and reliability monitoring system and to provide timely, accurate, and useful traveler information.

Provide significant research and data support in Task 1 (Literature Review), Task 5 (Conceptual Framework), and Task 7 (Data Collection), along with ancillary support to the other tasks of the project for Dowling and Associates

A total of fourteen items related to the L08 project were identified by The L38 contractors. Of these fourteen items, ten were identified by FHWA as being part of this scope (denoted as a bold response in the list below). 1) Fix the following bugs: FREEVAL: When using small percentiles to exclude scenarios, unrealistic results occur (average travel time = 65535) Will address. Relatively simple bug fix 2) Allow users to copy and paste data to simplify data entry in the seed file (or include an interface to import network geometry and flow data) Will address. Develop a simple interface that copies seed file data entry from another file. 3) Allow users to change the number and configuration of segments in the seed file after the beginning to enter segment details Will not address. Changing the number of segments such as adding or deleting segments takes 90 hours 4) Ramp metering button cannot be edited after seed file is created Will address. Simple bug fix. 5) Add more flexibility to the weaving calculator (e.g., ??A???a?sA???a??accept all??A???a?sA???A? button, ??A???a?sA???a??back??A???a?sA???A? button) or allow user to enter and save weaving volumes as part of the seed file inputs Will address. Will require some additional coding and testing. 6) Save results for each scenario (base case inputs), so users can analyze causes of failure during scenario testing Page 5 of 8 Will address. This is a higher effort task. Right now the tool saves detailed output of each scenario in the ??A???a?sA???a??Comprehensive Output file??A???a?sA???A? but it does not contain everything. If users take a look at comprehensive output, they should get some idea on the failure in the scenario. 7) Enable the calculation of reliability measures for subsets of the time intervals within the overall modeled period. Enable the estimation of reliability performance measures for subsets of the facility segments Will not address. This requires a fundamental revision of the methodology. This revision requires a new approach for scenario generation for travel time reliability analysis. A rough estimate of hours for this task is at least 80 days or 640 hours. 8) Enable the outputting of additional TTIs such as the 90th and 85th percentile TTIs Will address. 9) Clearly note that the urban and rural default values may not be valid because they are based on one particular study location Will address. This is mostly an editorial change. Involves hanging the worksheet and code in the Demand Multiplier worksheet 10) Show alerts when steps are missing- for example, the software will keep working if user fails to choose the ramp metering method Will not address. Estimate is 44 Hours. 11) Disable the unnecessary options for the selection of the number of HCM segments and disable the option of selecting non-basic segment types for the beginning and ending segments Will address. 12) Longer term: 1) allow FREEVAL-RL to model configurations beyond the HCM (e.g., more segments and time periods, more lanes, barrier-separated HOV lanes, etc.), 2) optimize the computation algorithm so scenarios run faster, 3) include a network geometry view (e.g., CAD map) and audit tool Will not address. All these comments are not doable a short-term time span. Items (1) and (2) will be completed as part of NCHRP 3-115. Item (3) is considered a mostly cosmetic change that is reserved for commercial software 13) Put all the tool guide information together for user reference. For now, users need to refer to multiple reference documents that L08 provided to make sure all the steps are correctly followed. Will address. Page 6 of 8 14) Incorporate relevant information from the FREEVAL user guide (e.g., weaving calculator) into the FREEVAL-RL user guide

NCDOT is planning to let one major project, I-5311/I-5338, in November 2012. The scope of this project will include reconstruction of the existing concrete pavement on I-40 and I-440 in Wake County from Exit 293 to I-40 Exit 301 and I-440 Exit 14. Construction of this project will impact traffic on I-40 and I-440 and the entire network within the triangle region.

A research project just completed for NCDOT by the proposers showed that the superstreets that NCDOT has installed recently across the state have served motorists wonderfully. They were shown to produce lower travel times for motorists under a variety of traffic volume conditions. They were also shown to produce great collision savings?almost 50 percent?at rural unsignalized installations compared to the conventional intersections they replaced. Because they will reduce the need for expensive widening, bypass, and interchange projects, superstreets will save the NCDOT huge amounts of money in the future. However, public reaction to superstreet proposals is lukewarm at best. Two groups that seem firmly opposed to superstreet proposals are pedestrians and bicyclists. In theory, pedestrians and bicyclists should both benefit from superstreet projects compared to conventional intersections. Crossing pedestrians should benefit because they cannot be hit unless a vehicle runs a red signal, for example. However, pedestrians typically object to a two-stage crossing of the main street, a zig-zag crossing path, the perception that main street traffic is traveling faster than normal, and a perception that the median is wider than normal. Bicyclists, who should benefit from the perfect signal progression on the main street, typically object to the greater travel distances required to make a minor street left turn or crossing maneuver. It would be a shame if the objections of pedestrians and bicyclists to superstreets?some well-grounded and some spurious?slowed installation of a device that is otherwise delivering great benefits to the motoring public. The purpose of the proposed project is to find ways to overcome the objections raised by pedestrians and bicyclists to superstreets. The project will have two specific objectives. First, the researchers will recommend changes in superstreet design and operation practices to overcome the objections. It is likely that some small, subtle, and inexpensive tweaks to current practices could help overcome most objections. Second, the researchers will develop materials that NCDOT can use to reach out to pedestrians and bicyclists during the planning and design stages for a superstreet project and show them that the project will be beneficial for them too. These materials could include presentations, videos, animations, brochures, web pages, and other forms. The researchers will use several methods to achieve objectives. The researchers will make video and other observations of existing superstreets with some pedestrian and bicycle activity, in North Carolina or elsewhere. The researchers will employ simulation to calculate the benefits from various treatment possibilities. Most importantly, the researchers will gather the opinions of pedestrians and bicyclists early and often throughout the project. This will likely include surveys and focus groups, perhaps with a panel of pedestrians and bicyclists that is consulted at many points throughout the project. The project will result in ways to address the objections of pedestrians and bicyclists to superstreets, either through better designs and operations or through better public outreach. In the end, this research effort along with previous work conducted by the team will allow all users of North Carolina roadways to enjoy additional superstreet installations that are safer, cause less delay, and save money compared to conventional roadways.

Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts

This research represents the continuation phase of activities that began in 2002. In the continuation phase, we propose three major studies. The first is to develop and test improved yield and gap detection systems through the use of video zone detection technology, as explained in the project description below (Project 2.1). In the second study, we propose to conduct behavioral and modeling studies of unassisted (natural gap detection) and assisted crossings (using yield, gap detection and APS signals) at points that are upstream/downstream of the roundabout (Project 2.2). The rationale for these studies is provided in the study descriptions. Finally, we propose to continue basic research, started in the initial grant, into an area-wide video detection system that conceptually combines yield and gap detection information, along with information on other conflicting and non-conflicting vehicles into a more comprehensive blind pedestrian, real-time information system (Project 2.3).

This research will provide transportation planners and engineers with a rigorous and computationally efficient tool to assess corridor and network-wide effects of road pricing and crash-reduction strategies on recurring and non-recurring congestion, using performance measures that can be directly applied in investment-level planning and decision-making processes. The research team proposes to build this capability into an open-source dynamic traffic assignment model designed for practical everyday use within the context of an entire large-scale metropolitan area network. Expanding the existing DTALite model to account for the effects of non-recurring congestion and allowing for the testing of a range of pricing strategies address the immediate needs facing many planning and operating agencies, needs for which no other alternative currently exist. The open-source DTA product will also serve future needs by enabling transportation researchers and software developers to continue to build upon and expand its range of capabilities. To ensure that this happens, the team proposes a strong technology transfer effort as part of this project, directed towards end users of the model in order to expand its reach to the widest cross section of future users/developers. The research product will assist state DOTs and regional MPOs to rapidly and systematically examine the effectiveness of traffic mobility, reliability and safety improvement strategies, individually and in combination, for a large-scale regional network, a subarea or a corridor.

The objective of this project is to determine how data and information on the impacts of differing cases of non-recurrent congestion (incidents, weather, worrk zones, special events, etc.) in the context of highway capacity can be incorporated into the performance measure estimation procedures contained in the HCM. The methodologies contained in the HCM for predicting dela??A! speed, queuing, ahd other ??A?erformance measures for altemative highway designs are not cunently sersitive to taffrc management techniques and other operation/design rneasures for reduc??A?ng non recurring congestion. A key objective is to develop methodologies to predict travel time reliability on selected types of facilities and within corridors.

The Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE), in conjunction with Kittelson & Associates, Inc. (KAI), Berkeley Transportation Systems (BTS), the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS), the University of Utah, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is pleased to submit this research proposal in response to SHRP 2 Project L02: Establishing Monitoring Programs for Travel Time Reliability. ITRE will be the overall lead institution and take responsibility for Phase I, developing the methodologies by which travel time reliability is monitored and assessed; KAI will lead Phase II, developing the Guidebook; and BTS will lead Phase III, spearheading the validation effort. As part of the SHRP 2 program, this project focuses on travel time reliability, helping operating agencies to develop systems ? hardware, software, and tactical strategies ? that enable them to better monitor travel time reliability and convey their findings to their customers and other data users. As the Request for Proposals (RFP) indicates, travel time reliability refers to the fact that travel times vary. For people or goods making similar trips within a specific time period between two points, there is an underlying distribution of travel time. People making trips respond to this variation in different ways as do those involved in shipping freight. For example, important trips like doctor visits and just-in-time freight deliveries require punctuality, so the driver (or freight dispatcher) needs to build extra time into the trip to ensure a high probability of arrival within an acceptable time window, for example being early or on-time 95% of the time (or on 19 out of 20 days).

This project is designed to have researchers at NC State work with technical stakeholders from Florida, California and Washington State on the implementation of the SHRP-2, L02 and SHRP-2, L08 products in test sites in those three states. The initial effort in this project is a training workshop to be held in Washington, DC on March 20-21 for the stakeholders. The products were developed at ITRE. It is expected that additional supplements yet to be determined will be added to this original SOW. These would include additional research to improve the final products,

2011 Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship for Zachary Bugg

Mobility is one of the key performance focus areas of NCDOT?s strategic transformation effort. The Transformation Management Team (TMT) established a TMT Mobility Workstream Team in 2007. This team began working on a mobility implementation plan in early 2008, completed the report in May 2008, and presented final recommendations to the Strategic Management Committee (SMC) in November 2008. The team recommended that NCDOT measures mobility of highway and other modes, naming the enabling tasks as 1) defining the performance measures, 2) assessing baseline performance, and 3) setting performance targets. Transportation mobility assessment, including the key mobility component of system reliability, is timely and critically important. However, mobility performance measurement is still a relatively new concept and there is a significant multipronged ongoing research effort under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) 2 Capacity and Reliability programs. In order to achieve the TMT Mobility Workstream team goals, NCDOT must implement monitoring and measurement techniques for mobility and reliability that are still in the research and development stage. The use and understanding of traffic statistics generated from various monitoring systems in the state such as Traffi.com, Inrix and SpeedInfo is a critical activity in defining and assessing mobility targets The Mobility Workstream team has plans in place to quickly implement a beta suite of link-based performance measures. The proposed research project assumes this initial implementation will be in place prior to the start of the project tasks. The project tasks are designed to address a series of research questions that must be answered to enable delivery of performance measures that are rigorous, responsive, and comprehensive.

PROJECT ABSTRACT NCHRP 3-96 ANALYSIS OF MANAGED LANES FOR FREEWAY FACILITIES The core components of this research include but are not limited to: 1) design a suitable performance-measurement framework for freeway sections with both managed lane and General Purpose (GP) lanes; 2) develop a method to quantify measures in the framework; and 3) implement the method in a computational engine to be incorporated in future versions of the HCM . To fulfill these research goals, large amounts of traffic data are needed. Organizing and analyzing such data sets requires advanced database design, data management, knowledge discovery, and data analysis skills. Meanwhile, field observations from managed lane facilities, while useful, may not be sufficient to cover all analytical scenarios of interest. Traffic simulation experiments are needed to cover the spectrum of analysis without field observations. Although microscopic simulation tools, such as VISSIM, have been in use for many years, their functionality for simulating customized dynamic tolling strategies is limited. External modules capable of implementing customized dynamic tolling strategies are needed. Also, simulation models must be rigorously calibrated to ensure the quality of simulation data.

Auxiliary through lanes (ATLs) are applied at signalized intersections to increase intersection and corridor capacity. For the purpose of this project, ATLs are defined as limited length lanes additional to through lanes upstream and downstream of an intersection (per the Request for Proposals for this project), as illustrated in the FHWA's Signalized Intersections: Informational Guide. This project will produce operational and safety analysis methods and design guidelines to assist transportation professionals in the evaluation and design of ATLs.

ABSTRACT The objectives of this research are to quantify the capacity benefits, individually and in combination, of operations, design, and technology improvements at the network level for both new and existing facilities; to provide transportation planners with the information and tools to analyze operational improvements as an alternative to traditional construction (e.g., determine what operational improvements will give the same capacity gain as an additional lane); and to develop guidelines for sustained service rates to be used in planning networks for limited access highways and urban arterials. The methods to be used to achieve those objectives will include the integration of traffic and performance data from multiple sources (field, archival, simulation) and the applications of existing and new assessment methods to identify packages of strategies that can substitute for new capacity additions. These strategies will combine technological, operational and design-based approaches that will be validated with data not used in the method development. The goal is to provide guidance at the network level for both planners and operational managers on how these approaches could be cost-effective in replacing new construction options.

The primary goal of this multiyear project is to assess the impact and benefits of the ubiquitous transportation network. For Year 3 research, the impacts at the operational and tactical levels for interrupted flow facilities will be assessed by the team. One of the driving behavioral aspects that are likely to be affected by the availability of u-Transportation on interrupted flow facilities is the gap acceptance process. This occurs for non-priority intersection movements (permitted left turns or movements controlled by STOP or YIELD signs). Information on vehicles' locations and speeds within the intersection may enable drivers to be informed of passing availability or passing order. Therefore, driver of a non-priority movement may accept smaller gaps or even may not need to stop at the intersection. The team will develop methodologies for emulating this behavior, implement in a selected commercial or team-developed tool, and examine the network capacity enhancement achieved by the new driving behaviors in a case study application.

Budget revised per sponsor's request.

ABSTRACT The objectives of this research are to synthesize the state of the art in implementing u-T communication protocols between vehicles (V2V) for traffic operations applications, and to define functional requirements for implementing the u-T communications in a micro simulation environment. The project will also develop and implement the methodology to model network impact of the u-T communications system on the performance of uninterrupted facilities, primarily freeways or expressways. Key performance parameters will investigate the effect on operational measures (compared to a baseline condition) the impact of V2V technology market penetration, network congestion and network connectivity, using a case study application. The results will be synthesized in a final report to the sponsor.

The primary goal of this project is to assess the impact and benefits of the ubiquitous transportation network. A systems analysis approach to the problem will be followed, where specific criteria for evaluation will be posed, and the ability of each element of the technology or information to meet the specified criteria will be analyzed. The objectives can be summarized as follows. 1. Achieve good understanding of the proposed ubiquitous transportation network capabilities. 2. Articulate the functional performance measures that will be used to assess the value of the network. 3. Develop the requirements in a traffic micro-simulation environment for modeling the ubiquitous transportation network. 4. Develop an inventory of facilities, and their interface that will be implemented in the simulation model. Facilities will be selected from the U.S. Highway Capacity Manual, and will comprise both uninterrupted (e.g. freeways; two-lane highways) and interrupted flow (signals; STOP, roundabout control, etc.). 5. Assess the impact of technology market penetration on the efficiency of the system. The project deliverables will vary depending on the duration of the contract, which at this time is limited to 9 months (Nov 2007-Aug 2008), with options for extension in scope and funding for an additional 2 years.

This project is intended to supplement an existing micro-simulation modeling effort for a proposed roundabout corridor on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. The matching funds will be used to conduct field research on pedestrian crossing safety features for the proposed design. Thus, this proposal builds on the calibrated micro-simulation models developed during work with the non-federal matching fund source, and enhance the existing models by incorporating elements of pedestrian safety. Through field data collection, model calibration, validation and extension, the project will evaluate proposed pedestrian safety treatments and will provide decision support to pedestrian safety researchers, roundabout designers, as well as the immediate stakeholders of the proposed corridor.

This project deals with the modeling and evaluation of the roundabout system proposed for initial implementation on two corridors on Hillsborough Street around Pullen and Horn. The modeling will be conducted in VISSIM and will be used to analyze alternative operations of the roundabouts under proposed designs. In addition, the ITRE project team will provide recommendations to the prime contractor (KHA) on specific pedestrian treatments to ensure safe and efficient operations on the proposed corridors. This will be based on ITRE?s team national experience on handling sighted and visually impaired pedestrians at roundabouts and continuous turn lanes. ITRE will host a Summit to discuss potential solutions, their implications, and additional modeling to be carried out. ITRE will also provide a summary report of the findings at each designated project milestone as mutually agreed upon by KHA and ITRE.

Fellowship awarded to Bastian J. Schroeder

A freeway bottleneck is the critical point of congestion with queues upstream and freely flowing traffic downstream. Recurring bottlenecks (those not caused by atypical conditions such as incidents) can occur for many reasons, including high volumes of entering and merging traffic, lane drops between ramps or at off ramps, heavy weaving sections, horizontal or vertical curves, and long upgrades. Proper identification of freeway bottlenecks and their causes is the key to formulating plans for reducing congestion. Major construction projects often address bottlenecks but these types of projects are expensive and take several years to plan, design, and construct. Relatively low-cost geometric and operational improvements (e.g., auxiliary, shoulder, narrow, high-occupancy vehicle, reversible, and contra-flow lane designs; ramp metering; truck restrictions) can often mitigate the effects of a bottleneck. The benefits of a low-cost improvement may not be as extensive or long-lasting as those of a major reconstruction project, but the improved system performance can easily justify its use. Determining the best improvement for a particular bottleneck can be difficult. The freeway congestion due to a bottleneck can spread several miles upstream and impact the arterial street system. Improving a bottleneck may result in the congestion moving downstream to a new bottleneck that was not apparent previously, greatly reducing the expected benefits. Analysis of the entire network is necessary to accurately estimate the benefits and effects of different improvements. The objective of this project is to develop a technical guide for identifying existing and future recurring freeway bottlenecks and determining appropriate low-cost geometric and operational improvements to mitigate them.

The current chapters of the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 (HCM 2000) that deal with urban streets essentially address level of service (LOS) only for automobile users. These chapters, perhaps more than any other part of the HCM 2000, should be the centerpiece of multimodal traffic analysis. Automobiles, trucks, transit, bicycles, and pedestrians share urban streets. The various modes interact with each other such that improvements in the quality of service for one mode may improve or lower the quality of service for another mode. Nationally recognized analysis techniques exist for the highway (HCM 2000) and transit modes [Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM)]. Analysis techniques for the pedestrian and bicycle modes, however, are not as well established. Although there are some components of a multimodal analysis approach, such as techniques for determining the impact of automobile traffic on bus lanes in the TCQSM, no nationally accepted method exists for combining the automobile, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian modes in an integrated analysis. Some initial research has been conducted for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) that resulted in the state adopting planning and preliminary engineering multimodal LOS measures, analysis techniques, and software. The objective of this project is to develop and test a framework and enhanced models for predicting levels of service for automobile, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian modes on urban streets that take into account the interaction among the modes and result in consistent LOS definitions across the modes.

The research approach described is predicated on a pedestrian crossing framework as shown below. A pedestrian crossing at a roundabout is initiated by the action of an agent, namely the pedestrian who initiates a crossing upon detecting a crossable gap, a driver yielding to a pedestrian, or a driver stopping due to an external control mechanism (e.g., signal) that forces gaps to occur in the traffic stream. Our previous work revealed that at some roundabouts, hearing alone could be unreliable for detecting crossable gaps and detecting yielding/stopped vehicles. Hence this program of work is focused on the development and behavioral evaluation of technologies that can detect or create these events and convey the fact that they have occurred to blind pedestrians. The study will extend recent work on induction-loop yield detection by developing and testing improved yield and gap detection systems that rely on video-zone detection technology. In study, traffic and pedestrian movement will be videotaped and gap and speed distributions of approaching vehicles will be extracted using a newly developed automated machine-vision system developed by ITRE researchers. Those distributions will be used for the purpose of assessing the effect of treatments and to calibrate the simulation model for extending the results to other, unobserved conditions.

A state-of-art ITS detection system, in particular Video Image Processing (VIP), can be useful for the purpose for traffic management in applications such as (a) safety and security (incident detection), (b) traffic flow information gathering and analysis, (c) control of signalized intersections, (d) surveillance of a intersection or a segment of arterial street, and (e) distribution of traffic information to public through various media. There have been major advances in developing image processing algorithms for tracking individual vehicles on a network (e.g. BHL in California, etc.) but less emphasis has been given on tracking multi-modal objects (motorized and non-motorized traffic) at intersections and arterials. This research focuses on testing the current capabilities of ITRE-mv multi-modal detection, when applied on an approach basis, at various signalized intersection facilities. A prototype Video Image Processing system (ITRE-mv) has been developed at ITRE using digital image processing technology. The system is capable of tracking all vehicles (in 3 classes), bicyclist, and pedestrian movements in the field of view at a resolution of various frames per second. Currently the algorithm operates in an off-line mode to automate the data reduction process. Because it can both detect and track all users in the detection area, the system generates a wealth of performance measures that can be used to provide both input and validation data for any class of traffic models. Examples of the data that are generated by ITRE-mv include origin-destination flows by vehicle class, speed profiles by O&D, gap and lag acceptance, entry and exit headway distributions, and queue size on the approaches. From the pedestrian perspective, the system generates micro-scale data on waiting time distribution, crossing time distribution, gap and lag acceptance, driver yielding behavior (to pedestrians), and the distribution of the position of yielding vehicles at the crosswalk. ITRE-mv was applied at two single-lane roundabouts and the comparison with manual results showed excellent promise. This study will duplicate the effort at signalized intersection approaches located in Idaho.

Supplemental Scope of Work and Tasks ITRE is proposing to continue its research contributions both in providing support to NEI data collection and analysis at the Pullen-Stinson roundabout on the NCSU campus, and in modeling pedestrian-vehicle interactions with and without the presence of treatments. This work will pave the way for more extensive analyses at the system level that is proposed for the NEI continuation proposal. Tasks 1. Support of Data Collection for NEI project HSRC and ITRE will work with the larger WMU project team to provide support for the data collection at the Pullen Stinson roundabout, including logistical support, videotaping of the experiments, facilitating coordination with local and state DOT officials. 2. Development and design of the yield device HSRC and ITRE will continue to work with NCDOT in developing specifications for and design a prototype for a pedestrian yield device. The device will consist of 3 loops, an interfering loop to check for conflicts at the crossing point, a yield loop to confirm the presence of a yielding vehicle, and a upstream presence loop to confirm the availability of a crossing gap with no conflicting vehicles present. ITRE will also provide facilities at its Traffic Signal lab for the initial testing of the device. 3. Completion and Verification of ITRE-mv The prototype machine vision software developed at ITRE will be completed and validated against manual data retrieval techniques. It will enable the automated data collection of both vehicle and pedestrian events at any roundabout, and will provide key inputs into the simulation tasks to follow. 4. Expansion of VISSIM simulation experiments At the end of 2004, a validated VISSIM model will be completed based on observations taken at 2 sites in North Carolina. The model will have only been validated for pedestrian-vehicle interactions for sighted pedestrians only. In this supplement, several additional simulations will be carried out: ? Validating the VISSIM mode based on the blind pedestrian data to be gathered in the fall of 2004 at the Pullen-Stinson roundabout. ? Modeling the stochastic yielding behavior of motorists at entry and exit legs. ? Modeling the impact of the yield device and how it effects crossing performance for a variety of vehicle and pedestrian demand rates. ? Modeling the impact of other treatments, including crosswalk relocation, signalization, and speed-control on the generation of crossable gaps and overall system performance. ? Expand the simulation capabilities to include multiple approaches at the roundabout. 5. Documentation and Results Presentations At the conclusion of the grant period, the ITRE team will provide contribution to the final report, and will participate with the team members in drafting journal papers, and presentations at national and international conferences. HSRC and ITRE have already submitted an abstract to the roundabout conference to be held in Vail Colorado in 2005

SCOPE OF WORK CONDUCTED BY NCSU/ITRE FOR UNC/HSRC MAY 1, 2005 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2005 From May 1, 2005 through June 30, 2005 the North Carolina State University Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) provided GIS database development and Internet website support to the UNC Highway Safety Research Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. The work performed by NCSU/ITRE entailed the mile-posting of reported commercial vehicle crashes in North Carolina for CY2003, incorporating these crash locations into the joint HSRC-ITRE GIS crash database, and hosting this interactive database on the Internet. The NCSU/ITRE technical support was provided to UNC/HSRC under a sub-contract from UNC-HSRC. Overall funding support for the UNC/HSRC work was via a sub-grant from the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, State Highway Patrol, as part of North Carolina?s Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) grant from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). As of July 1, 2005 (concurrent with the move of Dr. Ron Hughes, Principal Investigator on the grant from UNC-CH to NCSU) continued NCSU/ITRE support work will be funded directly by the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, State Highway Patrol. The attached budget is for work yet-to-be-billed by NCSU under the current sub-contract to UNC. A new sub-contract agreement will be issued by UNC to NCSU for work to be conducted between July 1, 2005 and September 30, 2005. The focus of this work shall be functionally the same as in prior years. A separate NCSU proposal for MCSAP technical support for FY06 (October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006) will be developed and submitted to NCSHP for submission as part of the state?s FY06 MCSAP grant proposal. The dollar value of the work performed by NCSU/ITRE from May 1, 2005 to June 30, 2005 was $11,400.

This is to request funding from the UNC-OP Institute for Disaster Studies in FY05 in conjunction with an ongoing research project involving ITRE, NCSU/ CE Department and UNC-W slated for completion on June 30, 2005. The project is intended to assess the hurricane evacuation plans developed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County The scope of work for which funding is requested is described below: 1) Assess the validity of the simulation results in CORSIM and VISSIM produced by the graduate student funded on the project (4 hours) 2) Provide comments on the effectiveness of the proposed crossover from the lane reversals on I-40 near I-95 at the Northern end of the lane reversal plan (4 hours) 3) Review the draft final report of the NCDOT study by May 31, 2005 (4 hours)

This project involves design and implementation of a field data collection study on diesel vehicles to measure second-by-second emissions of NOx, Particulate Matter, CO, and CO2, fuel use, engine data, and vehicle activity (e.g., speed, location) data using an on-board portable instrument. Benchmark modal emission rates will enable comparison of B20 and conventional diesel fuel, estimation of emission factors, and identification of opportunities to reduce emissions and fuel use through improved vehicle operation. Strategic recommendations will be made regarding biodiesel fuel, air quality management, energy management, and improved operation